


We're Going to Be Okay

by Sop12345d



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brightwell, But no character death I promise, Case Fic, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Graphic description of someone bleeding out, Gunshot Wounds, fic request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24585439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sop12345d/pseuds/Sop12345d
Summary: Title may be changed if I think of a better one. This was requested by musicluvvver on Tumblr for a MalcolmxDani fic where Dani gets badly hurt and has to have surgery, and the team find out about their relationship when Malcolm reacts to her critical condition. I went *slightly* over the suggested 3000 word count by making it a case fic, but oh well.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	We're Going to Be Okay

**Author's Note:**

> For simplicity's sake, Malcolm and Eve never got together in this fic so I guess you could consider it AU. Takes place after 1x16 "The Job" but before 1x19 "The Professionals." 
> 
> If you notice any mistakes in the timeline of this fic or any typos, please let me know and I'll fix it! Also, I am in no way a medical expert, any medical information in this fic is the result of a quick Google search in the wee hours of the morning. 
> 
> Any sentences in italics are Malcolm's thoughts.
> 
> You can find this story and more of my Prodigal Son content on my Tumblr at prodigalsonfanblog.

_NOW_

_It was supposed to be a normal day._ Malcolm put his head in his hands, covering his eyes and blocking out the harsh light of the hospital waiting room. He’d been there for several hours, Gil and JT having arrived a couple of hours after him. They were slouched in the adjacent chairs, shoulders tense and grim expressions on their faces. Edrisa walked in with coffees for the three of them, looking overwrought and worried, but Malcolm ignored her.

 _It’s my fault,_ thought Malcolm. He hunched over more, right hand shaking uncontrollably. For once, he made no effort to hide his anxiety. _Oh my god, it’s all my fault._

Suddenly, Malcolm felt like a hand was squeezing his throat, stealing his breath from him. He tried to breathe but it didn’t make the choking sensation go away. His chest hurt, and for a terrible moment, he worried that he was having a heart attack.

“Kid?” Gil’s voice came from his right, sounding concerned. Malcolm was hiding his head in his hands and hyperventilating. “Hey, kid!”

Malcolm gasped, feeling lightheaded and cold. Gil reached out and grasped the back of his neck, putting enough pressure to eventually drag him back to his surroundings.

“Gil,” Malcolm muttered. He didn’t trust his voice to go any louder than that. The shock was just hitting him now. Gil rubbed his back while JT stared at him. Malcolm shook his head no to an offer of coffee from Edrisa, afraid that it would make his anxiety worse. His heart was still pounding, an echo from several hours earlier.

_Dani could die because of me._

* * *

_ONE WEEK AGO_

The building, long abandoned, stank and Malcolm studiously avoided stepping in the puddles of god-knows-what with his expensive shoes. JT noticed his careful steps and smirked at him, gesturing at his more practical footwear. “Bright, man, why don’t you wear shoes that can be easily cleaned?”

“Because I don’t own shoes like that,” Malcolm grumbled, his eyes on the floor as he picked his way to the crime scene. He thought he heard JT mutter something about “rich people and their tendency towards impracticable things” but he ignored it in favour of the sight which caught his eye.

A man lay face down on the floor, his arms by his sides. A puddle of blood surrounded him, already congealed. But that wasn’t what drew Malcolm’s attention. Gil had drawn up the man’s shirt to show crudely-made cuts depicting several Satanist symbols, including pentagrams and an upside-down cross. To the right of the man’s head were five candles, burned out and melted, arranged to form the shape of a star.

Malcolm tilted his head to the side and frowned, trying to think from the killer’s perspective. Why did they go to the trouble of cutting different symbols into the victim’s back, and then lighting the candles? Was it a ritual of some sort?

“Name’s Richard Wilson, he was an accountant at a company called Maxi Pharmaceuticals. According to his boss, he just got fired a couple of days ago, but they won’t say why over the phone. Wallet’s here but his phone is missing,” Dani informed him. He shared a glance with her, both smiling before pointedly looking away and trying to act casual.

“Cause of death?” Malcolm asked, stepping around the body to look at it from another angle.

Edrisa spoke up. “Gunshot wound to the neck. He was killed here, going by the amount of blood. He bled out pretty fast, so at least there’s that.” She chuckled awkwardly, and then continued, “Incisions on his back were made postmortem, though.”

“Any idea of the time of death?” Gil asked, stepping closer.

“Rigor mortis has set in but there was a sudden drop in temperature last night, so I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Edrisa answered, standing up as a crime scene photographer took a picture of the cuts on Wilson’s back.

Malcolm eyed the candles, but they provided no clues. They were generic, tall white candles that you could buy at any home store. He crouched down next to the body. “These cuts look like they’ve been made in a hurry, and they’re uneven. Deep in some places and shallow in others. It’s almost like the killer’s hand was shaking while they made them.” He stood up and looked around. “I’d say they were afraid of being caught, but look at this place.” He gestured at the building, with its boarded-up windows and air of abandoned misery. “This seems pretty out of the way. Who found the body?”

“A homeless man looking for a place to sleep. We questioned him but he didn’t have much information, so we let him go,” JT replied.

“The killer must have kidnapped the victim to get him to this location, so we should check for CCTV around his house and his route home from work before he was fired, see if anyone was stalking him or if we can catch the killer on camera,” Malcolm said, back to staring at the cuts.

“Already on it,” Dani answered.

They visited the victim’s boss, Matthew Davidson, at a brightly-lit, minimalist but expensive-looking office building in Midtown. He was very polite and cooperative. “Ah yes, you see, we had to fire Richard for some remarks he made about our bookkeeping here. He was concerned that someone was embezzling money from the company for their personal use. That’s not true, of course.”

“You fired him for accusing someone of embezzlement? Who did he accuse?” Dani asked incredulously.

“We didn’t fire him for the accusations, we fired him for the threats he made about releasing our financial information if we didn’t stop denying his embezzlement claims. He was violating the non-disclosure agreement that he signed when we hired him,” Davison replied, looking at his hands before clasping them together tightly. Malcolm glanced down, but didn’t notice anything unusual. “He was so angry about it, he had to be escorted from the building by security. He didn’t know who he thought was embezzling money, but he seemed determined to find out.”

Malcolm and Dani shared a glance. Silencing a whistleblower was a strong motive. Unfortunately, they had no end of suspects. There were dozens of executives working in this department alone, never mind in the other departments whose accounts Wilson had had access to.

They questioned Wilson’s family and friends, but it was a dead end. None of them had known about the accusations and an audit of Maxi Pharmaceutical’s records showed no evidence of embezzlement. Nothing suspicious showed up on the CCTV around Wilson’s home either, and the ballistics didn’t turn up a match. After a few days with no leads, the team were forced to admit defeat and pass the case to a different set of detectives. Their help, specifically Malcolm’s, was urgently needed on a hostage negotiation within a bank heist.

* * *

_TWO DAYS AGO_

Not long after, the second body was found.

It was a woman this time, also lying face down with her arms by her side on the floor of an abandoned building, blood pooling around a gunshot wound to her neck. The cuts and the candles were present, but Malcolm noticed that the cuts were not in the same place as last time. Again, the cuts were unevenly made and shaky. Gil looked grim, and Malcolm could tell they were thinking the same thing. Two deaths, seemingly unrelated, both with the same MO… it didn’t bode well.

“The press hasn’t been informed of these deaths, right?” Malcolm asked.

“No, and let’s keep it that way. No need to cause a panic,” Gil replied.

JT walked up to them. “Vic’s name is Victoria Randing. She worked as a barista at a hipster cafe several blocks from here. No connection to Richard Wilson found yet.”

“Bright, you and Dani go to the café, see if she was working yesterday. JT, you and I will go over the CCTV footage around her home and her workplace, see if we find anything,” Gil ordered. They split up, Malcolm and Dani heading to Dani’s car while JT and Gil headed for Gil’s new car (replaced after Malcolm landed on it during that Count of Monte Cristo case).

On their way to the café, Dani stopped at a red light at a busy intersection. She tapped the steering wheel impatiently, frowning. Malcolm reached out and placed his hand over hers tenderly, smiling. She smiled back, taking her hand off the steering wheel to hold his more firmly.

“You know, I really enjoyed last night,” Malcolm grinned.

“Which part? When I thoroughly beat you at that video game, or what came after?” Dani smirked, keeping her eyes on the intersection.

“ _Definitely_ after.” He paused, then rolled his eyes. “Okay, maybe I enjoyed the video game too.”

Dani chuckled and kept driving when the light turned green.

* * *

Visiting the cafe turned up no new leads except that one of the baristas recognized Wilson’s photograph. “Yeah, he’d come in here sometimes for his morning coffee. Always a medium americano, black. He talked to Victoria sometimes, but lately, he’d come by on her breaks and they’d talk at one of the tables.”

The barista didn’t know what they talked about, but it was clear there was a connection between the two victims. The timing of their discussions strongly suggested it was about the embezzlement that Wilson was investigating, but what would a barista working minimum wage have to do with a corporate embezzlement case?

JT and Gil found nothing on CCTV and Victoria’s phone had been missing too, so they were forced to ask for the victim’s phone numbers from their families and try to get their phone records from the telecom companies. They found texts between the two, confirming dates and times to meet, but never more than that. Their discussions must have all been in person.

Back at the station, the team listened to Malcolm give his profile. “While there are several classifications related to ritualistic killings, I don’t believe that’s what’s going on here. If this was a serial killer acting under some kind of… Satanic impulse, they’d be meticulous about those marks on the victim’s backs. Plus, the victims have a connection. I’m not yet sure how, but Victoria was involved in that embezzlement investigation, I’m sure of it. The killer we’re looking for is of above-average intelligence – they take the victim to a remote area, they use the Satanism as a red herring, they’ve somehow gotten rid of any evidence of embezzlement in the company books. But something is causing them to make those cuts unevenly – a hand tremor, or an anxiety disorder, maybe.”

Gil leaned back in his chair and stood up. “Okay. We’ll take a closer look at the company’s executives, starting with Wilson’s department. It’ll take a while, so we’d better get started now.”

Wilson didn’t seem to have had any previous interpersonal conflicts with any of his superiors or colleagues at his department, so without any overt suspicion falling on any one person, they went alphabetically by last name, questioning them on their relationship with Wilson and requesting a look at their finances. It was going to be a long week.

* * *

_16 HOURS AGO_

The third body was found in an abandoned building in a completely different neighbourhood, with the same MO as the other two murders and the same ballistics.

“This is starting to get old,” Malcolm grimaced as he looked down at the body of Amelia Turner, shirt ridden up to reveal sloppily-made cuts of Satanic symbols. “Looks like she didn’t die right away,” he pointed out the drag marks in the dirt where she’d tried to get up.

“Looks like it, unfortunately,” Edrisa sighed, donning a pair of medical gloves.

Malcolm looked around, seeing the utterly deserted state of the building and the alley outside. He was getting frustrated now. While there had been cases that he hadn’t solved right away (and a few that he hadn’t solved at all), he wasn’t used to this frustration, this lack of evidence or evidence that led nowhere. He sighed, pacing and clenching his fist before flexing his hand.

“Found something!” Dani called.

They rushed over to her, where she knelt next to the body. She was holding a white business card that read, “Amelia Turner, Journalist, American Direct News.”

“Huh. A journalist.” Malcolm glanced at Gil. “Sounds like somebody a whistleblower would want to talk to if their accusations were being denied at work.”

Gil nodded. “She worked at the same news company as your sister, see if she knows her.”

When Malcolm went to visit Ainsley at the studio, she groaned and asked, “Did Mom send you? I’ve been ignoring her calls lately, she keeps asking me if I’m okay after that whole serial killer going after our father debacle but it’s getting annoying.”

“Debacle?” Malcolm whispered, frowning. “Whatever. No, our mother didn’t send me. Ains, I was wondering if you knew this journalist, she worked here at ADN. Her name’s Amelia Turner.” He showed her a picture of the victim on his phone.

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, I worked with her a couple of times on a story. She’s really nice, she mostly covers stories on financial fraud.” Ainsley saw her brother’s expression. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“She was murdered last night, and we think it has to do with a suspected embezzlement case at Maxi Pharmaceuticals.”

“Oh my god, that’s terrible. Can I help with anything?”

“Well, her phone was missing from the crime scene. It looks like the killer took it. By chance, did she leave any electronics at her office here, a laptop, a tablet…?” Malcolm asked.

“Actually, she usually left her tablet here in her desk, something about ‘not bringing work home’ and all that. Here, let me show you.” Ainsley led him to Amelia’s desk and opened a drawer, revealing a tablet and a few office supplies.

Malcolm picked it up, glad he’d decided to wear his gloves, and turned it on. “Any chance you know the passcode?”

“Yeah, it’s 9401.” He entered the passcode and looked at different messaging apps. In one of them, he found correspondence with the barista, Victoria Randing. It seemed that they were friends and that Victoria had asked her to investigate the executives of Maxi Pharmaceuticals for her new friend, Richard Wilson. Malcolm could already guess how well that investigation had gone.

“Thanks for your help, Ains, this is a big break in the case. Don't tell anyone about this. I have to go.” Malcolm put the tablet under his arm and walked away, already texting Gil.

“No problem, bro. Also, please don’t forget to get Mom off my back!” she called after him.

* * *

A further search of the tablet led to several financial documents that Victoria must have sent to Amelia after receiving them from Richard. It looked like Richard had been paranoid about being tracked before he could finish his investigation, but apparently not paranoid enough. Whoever was guilty of the embezzlement, or was somehow threatened by the investigation, had somehow found the link between Richard and the two women and killed all three of them.

“What I don’t get is why didn’t Richard go to the police with this? He could’ve had protection arranged if he was scared for his life.” Malcolm asked himself.

“Could’ve been for any number of reasons. Maybe he didn’t think he had enough evidence and that the police wouldn’t believe him, maybe he had a bad experience with a cop. Whatever the reason, we know now, and we’ll find the killer,” Dani answered.

Malcolm turned away from the whiteboard to face her completely. They were alone in the room. He walked up to her and brushed a strand of hair from her face, glancing from her warm brown eyes to her lips. “I love that look you get when you’re determined.”

She smiled back. “Not here,” she said, looking around to see if anyone was watching. “No one knows about… _us_ yet and I don’t want anyone to think we’re not being professional.”

“Oh no. Are we being unprofessional right now?” Malcolm asked, faking confusion and entering her personal space a bit with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Dani pushed him away, trying and failing not to smile. Malcolm beamed at her as she walked out of the room to find Gil and JT. He loved to make her smile.

Dani came back thirty seconds later. “We got a hit on five different suspects in the financial records that were saved on that tablet. Matthew Davidson was one of them, so you and I are supposed to visit him at his office to ask him to come to the station for questioning.”

“Finally. Let’s go,” Malcolm said, already grabbing his coat.

* * *

They didn’t find Matthew Davidson at his office, but when they told his secretary that the man was a suspect in three homicides, she gave them his home address.

Luckily, Davidson was at home, a large house in a wealthy suburb. He answered the door, looking agitated. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, Mr. Davidson. We’d like you to come in for questioning about the murders of Richard Wilson, Victoria Randing and Amelia Turner. You’re not being charged with anything, we just want to ask you a few questions,” Dani said.

Malcolm studied the man’s hands. They were starting to shake, more than his own right hand did when he was anxious.

“Uh, please, come in. Let me make you some coffee, or tea, if you’d prefer.” Davidson opened the door wider and gestured for them to come in.

Dani and Malcolm shared a glance before going inside. The house was spacious and tastefully decorated, a chandelier hanging above the main entrance next to a spiral staircase.

“This way.” Davidson led them to the kitchen, starting to prepare two cups of coffee.

“Mr. Davidson, we’d really prefer that you come to the station for questioning,” Malcolm said. He glanced around, spotting a few pill bottles on the counter and a few packs of playing cards on the table. The playing cards got his attention and he stared at them, trying to figure out what his subconscious had picked up.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”

Malcolm turned, startled, and saw that Davidson had retrieved a gun from somewhere and had it pointed straight at Dani’s chest. Dani’s hand automatically went to her holster, but Davidson cocked the gun and told her to put her hands up.

Malcolm did the same, breathing quickening subtly as he tried to defuse the situation. “Matthew, you don’t need to do this. Killing us won’t solve your problems. Do you know how much trouble you could get in for killing a cop?” His voice wavered on the last word, glancing at Dani. She swallowed, not looking at him and keeping eye contact with Davidson.

“No, don’t you see? I’m screwed anyway! Wilson found the money I’d been taking to pay for my medication, and he told that girl, and her friend the reporter. They were going to expose me and I would never get that promotion they’ve been eyeing me for at work,” Davidson replied, hands still shaking but both still firmly on the gun. Malcolm eyed his hands. He probably wouldn’t shoot on target but he could still hurt Dani badly.

“Medication?” he asked, trying to distract Davidson.

“For my MS. Wilson found out and he was going to tell everyone about what I was doing.”

Malcolm thought back to the pill bottles and the shaking hands. “You have postural tremors,” he realized. “Your hands shake uncontrollably when sitting or standing in an upright position. But why did you need to take money from the company, Matthew? Look at this place.” Malcolm gestured to the mansion-like home. “Surely your salary is enough to cover the cost of your medication.”

Davidson breathed out shakily. “I’ve been gambling, and I’ve lost all of my savings to paying off my debts. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice. You can choose right now to walk away. You don’t have to do this. No one is making you do this,” Malcolm said, getting closer to pleading now.

“You don’t understand. Of course you don’t, you could never understand. I need that medication to function!”

“I understand that,” Malcolm said, his hand out towards Davidson. “Just put down the gun and let’s talk about it.”

“No. No. I’m done talking,” Davidson said decisively. He cocked the gun and fired it at Dani.

“NO!” Malcolm cried, turning and pushing Dani to the ground. But he was too late. Blood was gushing out of a gunshot wound on her neck and he held his hands there tightly, desperate to keep her alive. “Dani, I’m right here,” he promised, all thoughts of Davidson out the window.

Davidson, seeing an opportunity, left and drove away, taking the gun with him. Malcolm ignored the sound of the engine fading away, his thoughts only on Dani’s warm blood spilling out beneath his hands. _Oh god, there’s so much blood._

Dani was rapidly going pale, but she kept steady eye contact with Malcolm, gasping for breath. Malcolm quickly took one hand off the wound to get his phone and call 911, making sure to keep a tight grip on her neck with his other hand. After giving the operator the necessary information, he told Dani, “Don’t worry, help is coming. I’m not going to let you die.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, trying not to cry.

They stayed like that for two minutes while they waited for the ambulance, Malcolm glancing up desperately every now and then to the door, which was still unlocked. Finally, the EMTs arrived and swiftly lifted Dani onto a stretcher.

“Are you family?” one of them asked.

“No, I’m her boyfriend,” Malcolm replied, shaken and watching them load Dani’s stretcher into the back of the ambulance.

“Then I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for her in the waiting room. We’re taking her to Westview Memorial Hospital.”

Malcolm nodded distractedly, his eyes only for Dani. He could feel her gaze on him from the ambulance, and it made him feel horribly guilty. 

* * *

_NOW_

“It’s my fault, Gil.” Malcolm sniffed, trying to keep the tears at bay. He didn’t want to be crying for all the world to see (well, those that were in a hospital waiting room at midnight, anyway).

“What? No, it’s not, Bright,” Gil replied, putting an arm around him. JT, having looked away out of respect, glanced back in interest. Edrisa, sitting across from them, put the coffee on the floor and leaned closer to hear their conversation.

“Yes, it is,” Malcolm insisted, his voice thick. “There were so many signs I didn’t see. How the victims were shot in the neck instead of a more fatal place, like the chest, because the killer couldn’t aim right due a hand tremor. How Davidson was trying to hide his hands shaking from his multiple sclerosis when we first interviewed him at his office. The pill bottles, the playing cards, his anxious behaviour… I should’ve _seen_ it, Gil. And I wasn’t fast enough at getting her out of the way of that bullet, and now she’s in the OR because of me.”

“Malcolm, you’re not the one that shot her. It’s not your fault,” Gil said compassionately.

Malcolm sighed, not convinced. He clasped his hands together, trying to get his breathing under control again. He glanced at JT, who was quick to look away, and at Edrisa, who reminded him gently, “Malcolm, you can’t control everything. It’s okay to make mistakes sometimes.”

“Yeah, well not when they nearly result in the death of my-“ Malcolm replied loudly before cutting himself off.

“Your what?” JT asked after a beat and Malcolm didn’t continue.

“Oh, you’re right, I’m sorry, I said the wrong thing. I’m sorry, I get talkative when I’m nervous,” Edrisa said, sounding embarrassed.

However, Malcolm ignored both of them in favour of the doctor who had just walked up to them. “Here for Dani Powell?” she asked.

“Yes,” Malcolm replied before anyone else could, already standing up. “How is she?”

“She made it through the surgery just fine, but she lost a lot of blood. The bullet was still in her neck, so we had to remove it and stitch up any broken blood vessels and then give her a blood transfusion. She’s lucky. She’s asleep and in the recovery wing now if you want to go see her, but only two at a time, please.”

“What room?” Malcolm asked breathlessly. He felt like all the tension had melted from his body at once and it left him feeling exhausted and so, so relieved at the same time. _Dani’s going to be okay._

“Room 206.” Malcolm was off before any of the others could follow. Gil excused himself and fast-walked after Malcolm, leaving JT and Edrisa to ask about Dani’s recovery time.

* * *

Malcolm opened the door to room 206 carefully, peering inside. Dani was the only one in the room, still unconscious from the surgery. She had a large white bandage on her neck and she still looked pale, but she seemed otherwise okay to Malcolm’s attentive eyes.

He sat on a chair at her bedside, holding her hand and listening to her heart monitor beep steadily to reassure himself that she was really, truly going to be okay. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle it if she wasn’t, and especially when it was his fault.

Malcolm sighed again, more relaxed this time, and rubbed his thumb over her hand, wondering how long it would take until she was back at work again, being the badass cop that he loved.

He stopped his movements, surprised at his thoughts. Did he love Dani? It was a bit early in their relationship for the L-word, but like Dr. Le Deux reminded him every now and then, he couldn’t deny his feelings. He glanced at Dani’s face, peaceful even in unconsciousness, and kissed her hand that he still held. He’d just have to have that conversation with Dani when she woke up. Because she _would_ be waking up, and she was going to be okay.

Gil leaned against the doorframe behind him, silently watching the two. “I don’t know why it took something like this for me to find out you two were together, but you could’ve told me, kid.”

Malcolm jumped, letting go of Dani’s hand, and turned, feeling unreasonably guilty. “What?” He saw JT and Edrisa poking their heads in the doorway behind Gil. “I thought the doctor said only two visitors at a time,” he said fake accusingly.

Gil turned and saw the two eavesdroppers shift from foot to foot. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” he said, a smile in his voice.

“We wanted to make sure she was okay,” JT answered.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so happy for you both!” Edrisa grinned, now carrying water bottles for the three of them. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! When did you start dating?”

Malcolm chuckled. “It’s only been a few weeks, and we didn’t want to tell anyone at work about it because we didn’t want anyone to think it was interfering with our professionalism.”

“Don’t worry about it, Bright,” Gil said, taking a water bottle from Edrisa and walking to the other chair before sitting down. “I think your secret’s safe with us.”

“Absolutely!” Edrisa said brightly.

JT put a hand over his mouth to cover a yawn and stretched. “Well, while I’m glad to know that Dani and Bright finally got past the flirting stage of their relationship, now that Dani’s out of surgery, I’m going to head home.”

Malcolm sputtered. “When were we flirting?”

“Like, every time you saw each other.”

Gil laughed while Malcolm smiled wryly and took a water bottle from Edrisa. He was glad to know that Dani would be okay, but he was still going to stay here, overnight if he had to, until she woke up.

JT and Edrisa left soon afterwards while Gil and Malcolm stayed at Dani’s bedside. Gil dozed off sometime around 2 AM but Malcolm stayed awake all night, not wanting to have a night terror in the middle of a hospital without his restraints and not wanting to accidentally hurt Dani or Gil in the process. Around 8 AM that morning, Gil left to get some coffee from the cafe in the hospital, leaving Malcolm holding Dani’s hand again.

His eyes were just starting to slip shut when he heard the beeping on Dani’s heart monitor pick up in speed. His eyes flew open and he sat up straighter, squeezing Dani’s hand. “Dani? Are you waking up?”

Slowly, Dani opened her eyes. She groaned, her other hand going to her neck. “No, don’t touch that.” Malcolm blocked her other hand and brought it gently back to the bed. “You’re in the hospital. You were unconscious and they had to do surgery to get the bullet out, but you’re going to be okay.”

Malcolm opened a water bottle and gave it to her to drink, which she did. When she was finished, she gave it back and cleared her throat. “Malcolm, did we catch Davidson?”

Malcolm let his breath out in a choked-off laugh. “Really? You nearly die from a bullet wound and the first thing you ask when you wake up is if we caught the bad guy?”

Dani gave him a look. “Yes,” she replied. “So did we?”

He sighed, exasperated but fond. “Yes, Gil and JT tracked him down based on his license plate before he could leave the city. Caught him red-handed with the gun, too.”

“Good.” Dani let her head fall back on the pillow.

“Dani,” Malcolm started.

She turned to look at him. “Yeah?”

“I’m so sorry about all this. I should’ve seen it coming, I should’ve been faster, I-“ The words came out in a rush.

“Malcolm, stop.” He stopped talking abruptly, looking into her eyes. “I don’t blame you for any of that, you know why?” He shook his head. “Because it’s _not your fault._ ”

“Dani, you could’ve _died._ ”

“And I didn’t! You helped save me. You tried to stop the bleeding and you called 911.” Malcolm looked down, remembering all that blood on his hands. “Malcolm, this is part of my job. I put myself in dangerous situations in every case. I was doing that before you joined the team, you know.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just glad you’re okay.” Malcolm squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back, grip firm.

They could figure it all out later. For now, they were okay, and together, and that was all that mattered.

_LATER_

“Oh, and the team know that we’re together, by the way.”

“What?!”


End file.
